Tested iPad: Hate & Love It

Accessability: it’s fast to turn on and start using. Just press one button and you can start working on it.

Noise: lack of it to be exact. It’s silent as my laptop isn’t. It’s a huge difference.

Battery life: if I compare this to any laptop pc I know, the difference is like between a man and a zombie. One is living, another one is very dead.

There’s one button that takes you to home screen. And there you see all your apps and can use them. It’s not like “you can setup that with -c dumb in console using params /s”. Oh, and now as you have 371 folders, you really should defragment them. Oh and indexing is good to turn off in the service. Oh… and seven billion other factors I’ve seen in Windows/Linux machines.

Missus likes it: always a good sign.

Weight: it’s very lightweight compared to laptops

Screen: very nice screenie. And you can touch it. Ooh…

Things I hate about it:

Name: seriously. iPad. It’s… gross.

Virtual keyboard: well, I don’t hate it. It’s “somewhat decent”. Maybe my couple hours of usage was not enough to test this properly, but somehow I like the Nokia style when it comes to keyboard: physical ones beat virtual ones. It’s the contact & feedback you get when pressing buttons.

Cannot upload images/files to web: I tried uploading an image. It said no can do. I have one 3 letter word to describe my feelings: “wtf”?

Weight: while it’s very lightweight, it’s also too heavy to be used to read books. I couldn’t find a good position nor could read stuff. So, for now I just grab my Terry Pratchett in physical format thank you.

Neck pains: the next morning I woke up, my neck was hurting. It’s because I have to rotate my neck more than when on a laptop. Maybe I just couldn’t find a good position or something, but anyway.

Battery charging: I have no Mac. When I plugged on the “universal iphone to usb port” cord (“universal”… *sigh*…) and iPad kept saying “won’t recharge”. I tried with PC windows, PC unix… even with PS3. It required me to turn off iPad and then it would recharge (of course it would not *tell* me that battery was charging). When the thing is on synced iTunes account (or as I guess: Mac machine) it charges okay.

Price: 500-800 eur is quite big price for this thing. The 500 price (16 GB, no 3G, wlan) is somewhat acceptable, but I wouldn’t pay 800 euros for this thing.

…but it will be a success. Big success.

The main reason that while there’s some things that are not so good (at least right now), but this machine is designed for human beings. It’s not for geeks. The usability is great. It’s simple to use. It has tons of software.

I can imagine iPad to be a really popular device, and when it comes to “surfing in web” or “reading some twitter stuff” or “checking emails”, I’m like tons of more interested in doing that using iPad compared to using Ubuntu powered laptop.

I was positively surprised. And this comes from the mouth of a alltime-Windows man who has tested Linux and hated Mac so much that I’ve never drunk apple cider in my life.

The iPad doesn’t need iTunes to charge. Why do you think that?
The iPad can only be charged off of USB connections that provide near 1 amp of current. The majority of USB ports on most older Macs and PCs only provide 500 mA and thus can’t be used to charge the device.
But, even when the iPad says it cannot charge on your computer, just turn the screen off and it will charge. You just can’t see the charge icon..

Best to just use the charger, that’s the fastest way. It will work with your computer or ps3 but just much, much slower.

Didn’t your IPad came with a charger? If not, get one. Very cheep here. 20 Euro.

And I agree with the other post. Comparing the IPad to a computer (desktop, notebook) is like comparing apples and oranges. Its a different device for a different purpose. I will get it definately when I have the money, just test it in the store extensively. About the upload image stuff, I can’t comment on that.

@ovo: I compare it because I’m using laptop for the thing I could use iPad ;)

@Russell: Bad wording… what I meant was more like “HUGE BIG MEGA” success ;) Like “in your face [minilaptops/laptops/gadgets/whatnots/insert-something-here], nobody buys you anymore” type of success.

Tons of other ways? Can you give me one example. :) Since I for example don’t know how I can upload image to let’s say twitter to replace my profile pic. Or upload wordpress image. I heard rumours that there’s Flickr api/app which you can use, but I want to upload images/stuff to any page that has upload form, like you could from any normal device ;)

Not sure what you meant by Macs and PCs charge the same way… but the point is that I have never seen a device that I need to turn off for it to recharge. Every single electric gadget I have can be recharged without need to turn off. PS3 controllers, mobile phones, laptop… you name it. iPad is the first that requires itunes, and unfortunately my PS3 does not have that so I conclude that apple hates me. :D Also, I didn’t know if that rumour is true or false. That’s what one apple-lover told me.

iTunes: I haven’t used iPhone or other mac devices, were so closely paired together. In fact, I learned that you cannot update iPad, you gotta sync it somehow via iTunes. I guess the alternatives are even worse, so I can take that I need to use iTunes for syncing. What I have trouble swallowing is that I would need to install it on a device in order to recharge iPad. Sorry, but that to me is like apple has code “IF (device.isUsingItunes() == false) THEN alert(“in your face, buy apple products”).

Ugh.

P.S. I still like the device. I repeat. I like its simplicity, battery life, silence, apps etc. – which make it a very good candidate for sofa browsing + some document writing (for which I use laptop)

I had to keep checking the date on this article, Juuso! ;) You predict that the iPad “will” be a success? Apple has sold over 7.5 million of these already.

Unfortunately, I think some of your statements are just false. There are a ton of ways to upload images to the web from that device. I don’t know what your problem locally is, but people do it all the time. It’s certainly not because “Apple is being an ass”, or because they “hate” you. Also, Macs and PCs charge the same way. You’re just propagating false rumors. Paying extra for uploading? Please stop.

And as much as you dislike iTunes, you will want to sync with it in case you ever want to backup or reinstall apps or music, or upgrade the OS. Like it or not, iTunes is a fairly integral part of using an iPad or iPhone. It’s been that way since the first day the iPhone was released almost 4 years ago. It shouldn’t be a surprise by now.

@keyboard: that’s eternal battle. I’ve come to conclusion there’s two herds. One like virtual, one likes the other. iPad keyboard is decent.

@Uploading: come on… iPad can be used for viewing photos and stuff. When you browse the web, and use twitter. It’s nice to upload your picture. I heard rumours there’s thing that you can pay extra to enable uploads. I cannot email my picture to twitter you know. I think this is just apple being ass :)

@Weight: I have books. I can read books the way you described. I cannot do this with iPad for long. Maybe my position is wrong or bad, but I just couldn’t find it well. With physical books I have no problem. And, true, you can use iPad while lying on sofa, but only so far… until your arms get tired.

@Neck: I used ipad like laptop – on my lap. I need to look more down, and yes, this caused neck pain (went away fast though)

Also, I never had neck issues with laptops.

@Battery: comeon. I have pc downstairs. The reason I could imagine using iPad is that I can recharge it upstairs. I have PS3 upstairs but it has no iTunes. I don’t know if the charger adapter helps anything. I find this to be very sucky thing, and in fact, this is the only device that I cannot recharge by plugging it to recharge – I also need crap software.

@Apple standard: I cannot put camera interface or shit there :) but if it was USB port, I could plug in 700 million devices.

@Price: I think the 500 eur is decent price, taking into account how usable & simple the device is. 800 eur is – in my opinion – too much for this.

With all this said and done… I must point out that I really like this device. There’s just some things that are annoying (that recharging is perhaps the biggest, and the next second comes the “haven’t found good position to use this thing” – but that’s maybe just me).

First of all I must say I’m not an apple fanboy, I just appreciate quality products. I’ve waited for the samsung tab to appear, so I can compare with the iPad and see what I should buy. After comparing, I want an iPad :)
Let’s see, maybe I can convince you too that it’s not that bad…
Name: I don’t care :D
Virtual keys: i have mixed feelings about that. I kind of hate physical keys in a mobile device because they take space and you can’t type like a normal keyboard, with all fingers, you’re still stuck with thumbs. At least on the iPad is large enough to type almost normal. You just have to get used to it :P
Uploading files: the iPad is a simple device. Ok for reading a simple mail, ok for sending a simple mail, but that’s all. I can’t check now, but I think the mail application can send attachments..
Weight: I don’t think it’s heavier than let’s say… a volume of Shogun (premium edition). And for that weight you get hundreds of books
Neck pains: you’re joking, right? It’s much more confortable than a laptop. Just think that you can lie in your bed, on a side, and watch a movie or browse the web. You can’t do that on a laptop (unless you manage to make it stand on it’s side, without covering usb ports, exhaust fans, charging cable, etc)
Battery charging: you can charge it from any computer with iTunes installed or from it’s charger (it has one and charges much faster than a computer because it supplies more power)
Apple standard: that connector supports more than just a computer connection. You can plug there an FM transmitter, card reader, camera interface, etc. If you can carry the iPad, you can carry a cable, especially if you also have an iPhone.
Price: it’s a little high. For that money you can get an almost decent laptop, but without battery life, screen quality and stuff. Any apple product is expensive because the hardware is top quality. Unfortunately the software sux. I want a device with apple hardware, linux/windows os and app-store games.